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The 2009 Child Poverty Report Card was issued this week and, once again, BC has the highest rate of child poverty in Canada; a situation that has persisted since 1999.

In 1989, the House of Commons established a goal to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000 but according to this week’s report the national child poverty rate still stands at 15% or one child in seven. Even more troubling is the sad fact that almost half of all off-reserve aboriginal children live in poverty in Canada.

BC’s child poverty rate now sits at 18.8% or one child in six. In 1989, when the poverty elimination objective was set, BC’s rate was only 14.5%.

Why has child poverty gotten worse?

We are a rich province and up until last year we were supposedly enjoying an economic boom, so it’s a very legitimate question to ask why we continue to have the highest child poverty rates in the country.

A major reason child poverty is growing is our failure to account for the ultimate costs of child poverty on society. Child poverty adds major costs to our justice, health, education and social systems. It also undermines our overall productivity and economic competitiveness. Yet, governments do not directly measure any of these impacts and so there is no impetus to view eliminating child poverty as a significant investment in our society and our economy.

If politicians were forced to quantify and report out on the direct impacts of child poverty on our society and what they were doing to address them, then we might make some actual progress.

Six provincial governments have taken this step: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. Some have even legislated their targets and programs so that future governments are bound by them as well.

It’s time BC had a poverty elimination strategy with specific targets, timelines and resources committed to it. This strategy must include raising the minimum wage, increasing income and disability assistance rates, providing quality child care, making more social and affordable housing units available throughout the province, and developing an economic strategy focused on creating high quality, family supporting jobs.

Maybe after the Olympic party is over, we can get back to governing this province for all British Columbians; starting with a strategy to address the needs of BC’s most vulnerable children. It’s morally, socially and economically imperative that BC have a legislated poverty elimination plan.

Bob Simpson
MLA Cariboo North

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